Sunday Six for June 1, 2014

This week I’m doing an early Sunday Six as I got word in my email that one of the Six is on sale this weekend. Great Pharaohs of Egypt is right now on sale at the Great Courses for $15.95, which is a $14 saving from what I paid for it. It’s a steal. The sale runs through Sunday, 1 June. More below.

The Six is also only going to be Four this week. Sorry there isn’t more to recommend, but I want to get this out quick and I haven’t had time this week to keep it up to date. My bad. Mea culpa.

“Yin Yang” by Ubiquitous Synergy Seeker (USS). I heard this song on the radio a few times and I really dug it. I had heard of USS before, but really didn’t know anything about them. Then I saw the video. The two guys in the band kind of come off as douches. I hope my enjoyment of this song doesn’t mean that deep down inside I am a right d-bag. That would kind of suck.

Into the Trees by Zoe Keating. I came across this due to a tragic situation that effected the artist. I wanted to do something, so I listened to a few cuts off the album Into the Trees. Zoe Keating is a cellist and songwriter, and I happen to rather like the cello. I was very excited by what I heard, so I picked up the album. It has been great to play between my youngest’s and eldest’s bedtime, when I am doing the dishes, my wife is studying and my eldest is reading. I wish I had found this under happier circumstances.

Great Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt by Dr. Bob Brier. This is another lecture series from the Great Courses. This is partly personal interest and partly to get me into the headspace for working on the Nefertiti Overdrive quickstart rules – which will hopefully lead to another Kickstarter attempt. Dr. Brier is a very amiable lecturer, and while he has an confident, easy delivery, he doesn’t follow too many digressions – there are certainly some, but that’s half the fun!

Spec Ops: The Line. This is a very cool game and the first time I’ve actually been pretty happy with a third-person shooter. I am a very late bloomer when it comes to computer games, and I pretty much suck at them, but recently I’ve picked up some of the Call of Duty series for cheap on Steam. Spec Ops: The Line has a very interesting and engaging story, and I’m comfortable with the controls. My biggest problem is that it takes forever to load the game, to load scenes, and to close the game. I’m working on a laptop that’s not optimized for gaming, so I blame my hardware, but this usually means I’ll choose something to play that loads quicker, especially when I die so much – something like Fallout: New Vegas.